


Sweep All the Ashes Away

by aban_ataashi



Series: Remember Thine Oath (Nona’s Story) [7]
Category: Pillars of Eternity
Genre: Gen, God Squad - Freeform, OC-Tober 2019 Prompt Fill, Pre-Campaign
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-17
Updated: 2019-11-17
Packaged: 2021-02-08 03:26:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21469288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aban_ataashi/pseuds/aban_ataashi
Summary: Perhaps one day she will be able to leave it behind. Just not today.
Series: Remember Thine Oath (Nona’s Story) [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1547509
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4
Collections: TTRPG Godsquad





	Sweep All the Ashes Away

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Bazylia_de_Grean](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bazylia_de_Grean/gifts).

> For the OC-Tober Prompt: "Keepsake"

When Nona leaves, she doesn’t take much with her.

Not that she has much to take. Nona has had little in the way of luxuries for some time now. But there are still some things- a few trinkets that she’s managed to hold on to- that she now has to leave behind.

It doesn’t bother her much. She knows she has to travel light, and after everything that’s happened, the loss of a few old possessions is far from the most important thing on her mind. So it’s without much fuss that she packs her clothes, wraps up some food, and leaves the rest of her items to gather dust.

Except for the book.

The book catches Nona’s eye just as she is about to walk out the door for the last time. The cover is a dark red, embossed with cursive lettering, and as familiar as the back of her hand. It should be; Nona has spent many hours reading and learning from its pages, and just as many using those pages to teach others. She can still see the notes and letters sticking out from its pages, old papers saved from days long past that she could never manage to throw away. There is nothing of particular importance in any of the writings; the value comes more from the familiar handwriting and reminders of what once was.

Nona had intended to leave it here along with everything else, but now…she can’t. She hesitates in the doorway, and finally, reluctantly, moves to pick it up. She considers it for a moment, turning it over in her hands. Too many emotions to name rush through her- fondness, anger, bitterness, something almost like regret. Too many memories summoned by this small package of paper and words and leather binding.

A candle still sits in the corner of the room, ready and waiting. Nona lights the wick and, one by one, takes the letters and notes folded between the pages of her book and lets the flame devour them. The old familiar words burn and blacken and eventually crumble away into nothingness, until only the book itself is left.

Nona deliberates for a long while, staring at the candle with the book in her hand. She couldn’t destroy it completely, not with this small candle, but she could burn it beyond use. There might be something poetic in that.

But she can’t. It’s not the book’s fault that such complicated memories have been woven into its pages. The words and writings themselves have always served her well, no matter what her feelings now are on the one who gave them to her. And perhaps Nona doesn’t need to erase every trace of her past here. Even painful memories can be lessons, after all.

This is what Nona tells herself as she slips the book into her bag. Perhaps one day she will be able to leave it behind. Just not today.

Nona takes one last glance around the room, blows out the candle, and walks out the door without another look back.


End file.
